Here is a fabulous philanthropic project in Palm Beach County that will generate global media exposure. I am hoping the members of Spearboard might be interested in the attached USS Clamagore Submarine Reefing Sponsorship Program for a donation at any level you are comfortable with.

The Palm Beach County has committed $1 million to the sinking off Juno Beach of the historic Cold War submarine USS Clamagore as an artificial reef. For over three decades, the USS Clamagore has attracted millions of visitors to the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum near Charleston, South Carolina. However, the iconic World War II cold war submarine is now ready for a new chapter in history. I visited the submarine in South Carolina earlier this year and found it to be very impressive.

I personally donated at no charge my video production skills to create a fund-raising video for the project with my daughter Lauren as the professional host of the video. Please take a short guided tour of the submarine and learn about the museum project by clicking on this YouTube Link:

Also, the land-based museum is exciting which can be a major Museum tourist attraction. The museum building would house the submarine torpedoes and other equipment plus educational displays from the submarine.

How much does it cost and where do the funds go in sinking a ship? Just curious. Obviously there would be cleaning to make sure no contaminates are spilled, then some explosives and a tow boat to bring it out there. But $1,000,000 sounds like more then enough to pay for the project.

How much does it cost and where do the funds go in sinking a ship? Just curious. Obviously there would be cleaning to make sure no contaminates are spilled, then some explosives and a tow boat to bring it out there. But $1,000,000 sounds like more then enough to pay for the project.

In order to reef the sub, they have to take out everything on it that could be an environmental hazard - interior paint, cabling, etc. - as well as pull out any items they want to save (instrumentation, fittings, etc.) and open up one side of the sub for diver access. That's a lot of work in the yard; not sure whether it would be done up in South Carolina or if they'd bring her to FL first. Either way, then you'd have to get it halfway down the Atlantic seaboard and it would likely not be a tow - you'd have to lift it onto the deck of a barge (rusty old submarines have a habit of sinking at sea if the weather goes sour; ask the Russians about this). From the presentations they're going to set the whole thing in a cradle to keep it from shifting on the bottom, which is a good idea given what a hurricane can do with something that's six times the tonnage and sitting in deeper water. Doesn't sound like they're going to sink it with explosives; it'll have to be placed in a more controlled manner. I would assume the tab also includes the proposed museum ashore. So yeah, I can see the whole thing costing a few mil.

Kind of sad in a way - the Clamagore's the last existing boat of her specific type. She was originally built as a standard WWII fleet sub, designed to primarily run on the surface and only crawl at about eight knots submerged. After WWII the Navy got its hands on a couple of the German Type XXI "Elektroboote" subs and their Japanese Sentaka-Dai counterparts, which were streamlined designs with a lot more battery power that could crank up to 17-19 knots underwater. Since the Soviets also got a few of the Type XXI U-boats after the war and began building their own versions, our WWII boats were obsolete.

In the late 40s and 50s the Navy converted a number of the surviving WWII boats under the GUPPY (Greater Underwater Propulsive Power Program) to give them better underwater performance. There were a couple different versions; the Requin (SS-481) preserved in Pittsburgh is a minimal "Fleet Snorkel" conversion while the Clamagore is the last survivor of nine boats that were given the most extensive GUPPY III conversion with an extra hull section and a new sonar system (the three "fins" you see sticking up from the deck). Of the other eight GUPPY III boats, one was scuttled about 200 nmi off Hatteras in the 70s and the rest were sold to foreign navies in around then (two to Turkey, two to Brazil, one to Greece, and two to Italy). The two Italian boats were retired in 1980-81 and the others served into the 1990s before being decommissioned and then scrapped.